Some Orthodox Jewish singles expressed isolation within their communities in a Yeshiva World News forum about shidduchim.

An unmarried woman in her 30s wrote that she “do[es] not feel that the community makes a place or gives any understanding to anyone who is single and over 25” — many Orthodox events are geared towards couples and/or families.

A Baltimore-based nonprofit organization seeks to bridge this gap by providing support, resources and advocacy for frum singles. A Single Impact, which launched in January 2020, envisions a world where all adult frum singles are accepted as “full members of the community.”

“Frum life is great when you are married and you have children, that’s fantastic. For people who are not at that stage of life, it can be more difficult,” said Shoshi Glazer, A Single Impact’s director of operations. “So we try to fill the gaps so that people have a community of their own.”

A Single Impact provides singles with networking opportunities, education and resources and initiatives that aim to enhance life as a single person. If a community member is seeking a spouse, A Single Impact helps them find love. If not, that’s OK too.

In November 2019, the group formed Bashert Baltimore to run dating events for Orthodox singles — which even resulted in a marriage. Then, the pandemic caused the team to reconsider the community’s needs.

“We paused and we said, ‘What do people need? Do people need dating events or do they need other things?’” Glazer said. “It turns out they needed other things as well.”

Those needs stemmed from loneliness due to the lockdown.

“During COVID, people were in their bubbles,” Glazer said. “When things started opening up, families would have other families over for meals and they would specifically not have singles over because they weren’t sure where the singles had been. Many of the singles had been home alone for many, many, many months.”

Glazer noticed that families with school-aged children received packages and fun deliveries from their schools.

“If you’re not part of a school community, you didn’t have that,” Glazer said. “Even if you were part of a shul community, but single, you maybe didn’t have that.”

Post-pandemic, A Single Impact continues its work supporting singles. One recent offering was a Purim megillah reading free of “loud screaming children.”

The nonprofit distributes care packages before Purim and Rosh Hashanah to let singles know that someone’s thinking about them, Glazer said.

“The first year we gave out packages, somebody said it was the only one that they received,” Glazer recalled. “And that’s heartbreaking. It’s not OK, and we all need to do better.”

The nonprofit helps single community members with the “little things” — driving them home from the hospital, delivering Shabbat food, starting meal trains and grocery shopping for those who are sick and making shiva calls for someone mourning the loss of a parent.

“They may not have a supportive [or] big family; they don’t have a spouse,” Glazer said. “So a lot of it will fall on them to navigate, and it’s a hard world to navigate on your own.”

She added that frum singles tend to seek out A Single Impact after discovering the group on social media or through word of mouth. Sometimes, local synagogues will contact Glazer to refer new community members to the nonprofit.

A Single Impact doesn’t have a set home base. “We are all over,” Glazer said. “It depends on the type of activity we’re doing. The shuls are very generous with their space, which is wonderful.”

Other programs are hosted at Autumn Lake Healthcare, a Catonsville nursing home and rehabilitation center.

A Single Impact also runs a twice-yearly clothing sale for new and gently used women’s clothing, with the next one on March 15 at Ner Tamid Greenspring Valley Synagogue.
“Clothes are really expensive now and really frustrating for a lot of people just because … you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Glazer said.

She said because so many people and Jewish stores donate clothing, the sale offers a variety of brands and styles.

“It’s a mishmoch of stores and people and things that I necessarily wouldn’t buy, but now, because of the prices, I can say … ‘Let me go out of my comfort zone,’” Glazer said. “We wanted [the clothing sale] in a space that people are comfortable, people feel safe to go and experiment and see what they can find and to find something that brings them joy.”

In addition to providing affordable clothing to local women, the sale raises funds for A Single Impact’s gift packages, some event admission assistance and the costs of running a nonprofit.

The group has grown in membership since its start in January 2020, though its numbers fluctuate with members getting married or divorced or moving in and out of Baltimore.

A Single Impact is on its second board chair and second round of board governance, Glazer said. The group also participated in the Orthodox Union’s sixth Accelerator Cohort for Nonprofits: “That was fascinating to learn and grow with the backing of the Orthodox Union,” she said.

For now, Glazer and the team tackle problems as they arise one at a time.

“If somebody comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I’m having this problem; what do we do?’ I say, ‘Let’s figure it out,’ and we try to come up with a plan together that makes sense to the situation,” Glazer said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com

Mia Resnicow contributed reporting to this article.